Days 9-12

As we have mentioned before, it is hard to find a variety of foods in Roma. We decided to make a trip to the Hard Rock Cafe to get ourselves a real American burger. Our table even split a massive plate of nachos before our entrees arrived. Even though the food was a little bit pricey, it was well worth it. 

Michelle and I

The burger Stefan and I both ordered...BBQ bacon burger with caramelized onions

Full ketchup bottle when we began, empty when we finished

From the left...Mike, John, Avi, Stefan

Cafe Miani is where we go to get the cornetto/pastry and cappuccino for 1 Euro. We have gone there multiple times this week and we are starting to become regulars. We have been trying different pastries every time. So far we have had the plain cornetto, black and white cornetto (filled with nutella and sweetened creme), milk ( sweetened creme) and chocolate pastry, lemon creme filled cornetto, and a strawberry and creme pastry. The cappuccinos are always the same and always delicious. We do our best to get there around 10:15 when the pastries are fresh out of the oven.

Strawberry and Creme pastry

Pastry and Cappuccino

The next morning we decided to make a trip to Trevi Fountain. We were expecting it to be in an open plaza, but it was actually on a side street, tucked in a little area that was surrounded by buildings. It was a beautiful fountain, but we weren't as impressed as we thought we would be. Since we went on a Saturday afternoon, it was packed with tourists. It was really hard to enjoy, especially with people walking around trying to take pictures of you and then sell them to you. They don't quite know how to take a "no" for an answer.

After leaving the fountain, Stefan, Michelle, and I decided to go to the Colosseum and the Roman Forums, since it was relatively close to the Trevi Fountain. It was a gorgeous day, which made it fun to walk around and see more of the city. We didn't tour the Colosseum or the Forum because St. Johns will take us for free in a few weeks.

Arch of Constantine

Arch of Constantine

The Arch again

Roman Forums ruins

Ruins

One of the temple ruins

Statue at Trevi Fountain

Trevi Fountain

We decided to explore some of Trastevere (another district of Roma) this weekend. It took us about 30 minutes to walk there from our dorm. Unfortunately, we went in the late afternoon when many businesses close, before reopening in the evening. Trastevere is known for having good food, but since most businesses were closed, we were only able to try food at two places. We tried a couple different types a pizza, a calzone, and a pastry, all of which was delicious. We will definitely have to make a trip back to Trastevere on another day. Hopefully at a better time when we can explore when businesses are open. 

Ricotta with chocolate chips and pastry dough

view from the top of a hill 

Tiber River

Bridge of Angels

Bridge of Angels

On our way to Trastevere, we walked by Castel San Angelo which was built for the protection of the Pope.

Castel  San Angelo

Day 8

Day 8 had great weather. We signed up for a trip to visit St. Peters Basilica with St Johns and Domenico (the St. Johns staff member in charge of student services). We took the stairs all the way to the top of the dome, and took plenty of pictures on the inside. While I was impressed with the view from Il Vittorino, the view from the top outside of the Dome was incredible. Inside the Basilica I found myself more than camera happy and took around 175 pictures (which for me is probably more pictures than I have taken in 5 lifetimes).

Picture of the top of the dome from the inside

The area where we took the picture above included a 10-15 minute walk up tons of stairs (Jazz said it was like doing stadiums). Thankfully I don't have claustrophobia, but some of the people we went with were not quite so lucky. The passageway to get to the top got tighter and tighter as we went up. Eventually the passageway was not much wider than the width of my body. Part of the stairwell was slanted, which you can see in the middle picture below.

Some of the passageway

Outside of the dome from the roof

Picture from the fenced in top of the dome

View from outside the dome

A mosaic inside the dome

Castel Sant'Angelo

Inside St. Peters

Long ceiling

Entrance

One of the archways

Fresco

Another fresco

Front

one of the closed off rooms

Can slightly make out the railing where we were standing earlier 

Entrance to below

Column

Column

Outside of the entrance

Large entrance door

One of the many fountains around Roma

Action shot, she only managed to soak her entire upper body

This was probably the best day we had so far in Roma. The Vatican really was amazing and the scale of it was incredible. I've seen plenty of movies/pictures portraying the Vatican, but it really kind of left you speechless. It was absolutely gigantic; pictures do not do it justice. I could go on and on about how amazing it was, but I'm sure you get the idea.

To top the trip off we stopped and the McDonald's for a bit of American food. The menu is completely different but they still included a few classic American items, namely the Big Mac meal. The only real noticeable difference was that the portion sizes are much smaller (and you have to pay for ketchup and mayonnaise .20 Euro each). 

McDonald's.